Archive for March 2016

As is occasionally the case, a humble narrator needs to take a short break. This week, single images will greet you, as is the case with the one of a Pigeon above – which was encountered in Sunnyside last year.

Like this:

My pal Joey lives next door to a guy named Butchie here in Astoria, and Butchie is one of those cat feeding people. Joey’s yard, and that of every other neighbor within around 10 addresses of Butchie’s house, is infested with cats. Accordingly, the mice of Joey’s block do whatever they can to never go out and just stay inside.

Like this:

As is occasionally the case, a humble narrator needs to take a short break. As is my custom, single images will greet you this week, as is the case with the one above illustrating a Squirrel whom I encountered at Astoria Park.

As is occasionally the case, a humble narrator needs to take a short break. This week, single images will greet you, as is the case with the one above depicting a Night Heron – a critter which I encountered on North Brother Island a few years ago.

While on the way to Old St. Pat’s for the Irish language mass a week or two ago, a bit of my spare Manhattan time was filled by wandering about. Over in the East Village, one of my favorite bits of historical neon – the Block Drugs sign – was observed and recorded.

– photo by Mitch Waxman

One had taken the 7 from Queens to Manhattan, which deposited me in midtown. I had elected to walk down Park Avenue for one reason or another. One of the reasons was that since Park is a bit wider than most of Manhattan’s north south streets – there would be available light rather than perpetual shadow.

Don’t worry, the Mayor’s new Mandatory Inclusionary Housing rules and zoning changes will soon eliminate any shard of pesky sunlight which might strike the ground.

– photo by Mitch Waxman

Always on the lookout for something “iconic,” this early morning lineup of taxis at Grand Central Terminal caught my eye as I scuttled forth from the 7 train’s exit.

It seems that, back in 1853, the 20 acre Purchase Farm was bought and repurposed for usage as Flushing Cemetery. In 1875, the Whitehead Duryea Farm’s 50 acres were incorporated into the property, which more or less created the modern shape of the institution (there were a few minor additions added here and there). Flushing is a bit of the “unknown country” for me, and I usually just refer people to Queens Borough Historian and Flushing native Dr. Jack Eichenbaum when the subject arises.

Not too long ago, my pal Cav and I jumped into his “automobile” and went to check Flushing Cemetery out as the best curative for ignorance is investigation.

– photo by Mitch Waxman

Cursory research reveal there to be around 41,000 people whose last address is here. There are several notables, including musicians, actors, and revered statesmen interred in Flushing Cemetery. The place was in a VERY good state of repair during my visit to the place during the last weeks of 2016’s winter.

– photo by Mitch Waxman

The plots and sections we visited revealed a large number of German sounding names on them, and the dates on the monuments ran a gamut from the middle 19th to early 21st centuries.

– photo by Mitch Waxman

The marble monuments showed the “rotting” sort of decay that is caused by acid rain and subsequent water infiltration, causing their carven screeds to be obscured, unreadable, or lost. You see this sort of thing in a more advanced form at Calvary Cemetery in Blissville, where certain monuments have the appearance of melted ice cream. Observationally, granite monuments seem to endure longer in NYC’s peculiar and polluted atmospherics.

– photo by Mitch Waxman

The fellow who plotted out the cemetery back in 1853 was a Civil Engineer named Horace Daniels, and he seems to have embraced using a lot of curving paths. It’s likely there’s a ton of original design elements missing from the scene above – railings, statuary, plantings, etc.

I won’t attempt to tell you anything else about the Bownes, as Flushing is outside of my area of expertise.

I just came here on a day trip, and would advise that you seek out and chat with Dr. Jack Eichenbaum. Dr. Jack can discuss the Bownes in greater detail and scope than I can. The East River and Newtown Creek coastlines are where my knowledge of Queens history is both detailed and well studied.

– photo by Mitch Waxman

“Quite Lovely” thought a humble narrator, upon noticing a surviving iron railing on the Bowne Plot, with its cast iron chains designed with the appearance of a tasseled rope.